Mee Siam

Spice paste for both noodles and gravy

3 large onions (or for medium size onions, use about 6)

6 cloves of garlic

4 tablespoon dried shrimps

2cm belachan

20 stalks of dried chilli, soaked 

1/2 cup water

Blend the spice paste in a blender and use 1/3 of the paste for frying the vermicelli

Noodles

1 pack of vermicelli, soaked 

1/3 spice paste

2 tablespoons taucho, washed & pounded slightly

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon sugar

Salt to taste

1/4 cup chopped chives

Sauté 1/3 of the spice paste in oil until fragrant. Add the pounded taucho, water, sugar and stir the vermicelli well  and dried . Add the chopped chives and salt to taste. Set aside 

Gravy

2/3 spice paste 

1/2 cup taucho, washed and pounded 

1/4 cup roasted peanuts, pounded coarsely or blitzed in the blender for a short bit

1/4 cup tamarind mixed with 1/2 cup water

1/4 cup santan

2 pieces of asam keping (dried tamarind)

1.5 litres water

200g prawns, deshelled and deveined 

1/3 cup sugar or to taste

Salt to taste

Sautee the spice paste in oil until fragrant, add the taucho and the blitzed peanuts and tamarind water. Once you get a nice paste, add water, sugar, dried tamarind and salt. Lastly add prawns. Simmer for about 10 minutes.  

Always add the salt last as different variety of tau cho has different level of saltiness. The taucho here in Jakarta is super salty!! Adjust the sweetness and tanginess you desire as well. I like a good balance of sweetness for my Mee Siam. This is the Malay version of mee siam.. Nonya version uses lashings of coconut milk in the gravy and has a thicker consistency.

Topping

Boiled eggs, sliced

Chopped chives

Fried tofu slices or tau pok slices

Blanched bean sprout

Sliced fish cakes

Lime halves 

Sambal tumis

Sambal Tumis Recipe

2 large onions

A handful of dried chillis, soaked

3 cloves of garlic

A thumb size belachan

A bit of water to blend

A walnut size of asam or tamarind, mixed with water to get the juice 

1.5 tsp of salt (or to taste)

2 tablespoons sugar

Just blend the above items in a blender until smooth. Sauté in about 1 cup of oil and make sure the ingredients are really fragrant and "crispy". Add your salt, sugar and tamarind water. Add a bit more water if preferred but for mee Siam,   a thick sambal is preferred.